3 tips to make your online meetings more effective and fun.

Yuri Bobbert | December 15, 2020

Do you recognize the feeling that you are wasting time in meetings? Nobody says it out loud but often think so according to research. Long discussions that go on too long. Introverts who get little or no space from the chairman. Vocal people who speak a lot but say little. All annoyances that are amplified during the Corona Lockdown because you are suddenly behind a screen. And all non-verbal communication is no longer received. Hanging behind a screen for 8 hours and hopping from call to call. Little social interaction and limited physical movement. At once, a meeting becomes an “energy leak”.

In previous articles I wrote about the disadvantages of long and ineffective meetings. Meetings that are too long, have an unclear agenda and no purpose. The resulting inefficiency means that decisions are taken slowly, because not everyone felt heard. The execution of a decision does not take place because there is no support. The best ideas are not carried out because they belong to the introverted person who often have the best ideas but are less strong in their voice. And that chairman just didn't have the skills to get that voice forward with that best idea.

Investigation during Lock down; top 3 requirements.
During the Corona Lockdown I did a small survey among about 30 meeting chairpersons, moderators and coaches. I asked them what they thought was important in online meetings. For this research I used so-called Group Support System software (Meetingwizard) in combination with ZOOM conference software.

The respondents gave the following results. To the question: what are your requirements for an effective online meeting? The following points emerged:
1. Competent chairman with a clear agenda with a clear structure
2. Fun
3. Everyone's attention and input

3 stages of COVID-19;
If we look at the rise of Corona and the state of the art with these results in mind, the following stands out;

Phase 1 (Disruption): In this phase, the pandemic receives international recognition and worldwide directives to start working from home. Characteristics are increased with the use of technology. People speak of “the digital transformation” in an accelerated form. Homework perils quickly surface and must be dealt with, such as increased bandwidths and very friendly home workplaces.

Phase 2 (Habituation): recognition by organizations that Corona will last for a long time and working from home will be a new standard, the new normal. The 1.5 meter economy penetrates everywhere. Online tools are experiencing tremendous growth. Zoom goes from 10 million users to 200 million users per day. Teams and Google Meet are widely used. This new normal “at a distance” requires a different leadership and management mechanism to assess the productivity of teams and employees and to adjust where necessary.

Phase 3 (The New Normal): Tech companies are closing their offices and asking their staff to work from home. Meanwhile, boardrooms are asking for secure solutions and tools to work remotely (aka Distributed Agile) and to facilitate teams. Managing a productivity dip has top priority.

What is striking about the phases of the Lockdown is that reporting requirements are also set for the more formal meetings. Board meetings where the reporting must be kept for a longer period and must be retrievable (eg government and Public Administration Act). So- called “evidence trailing”. Tracing who, when and why made a certain decision turns out to be complex and, given the state of technology, complex today. Meetings should actually facilitate decision-makers in sharing knowledge, discussing complex topics, monitoring the progress of projects, often under great time pressure and uncertainties.

In the knowledge that working from home will continue for a while, the tips below are relevant for any online facilitator, chairman or coach. We list them per requirement as we saw it earlier;

1. A skilled chairman means someone who clearly coordinates and establishes the purpose of the meeting in advance with his participants. Ensures that there is a clear meeting goal or question. If you use the agenda as a guideline to make everyone's voice heard, this promotes support and interaction. To be keen on non-verbal communication, ask if all participants leave their video on. And no more than 15 people in the call. This way you keep interaction between all participants.

2. Keep it interactive, introduce humor and do a poll in between (eg about the “room rater” in which you rate each other on your room). This can easily be done via Zoom or Teams. Everyone loves fun and interaction. Returning and / or showing results on a split screen in the meantime keeps the participants' attention.

3. Use technical solutions and become proficient in this as a moderator or chairman. Direct feedback via a system and visually visible input from the participants during the meeting promotes togetherness and has a socializing role.